The game plan

One of the best ways to learn game development is to build a learning project. Choose a very basic game and recreate it on your own. Many programmers use Tetris as their learning project. For a very basic introduction to a language or tool, I like to use Memory.

"But, wait!" you say: "Memory games are stupid and boring, and they're for babies, and I'll positively die if I have to build one!" Of course, you're right. You're not going to be lauded by critics and raved about by gamers for building a simple memory game. But, it's a fun challenge to set for yourself: how can you take a game that everyone has played before a million times, and put a simple twist on it to make it more interesting? How can you work within those constraints to make it your own, and to showcase your creativity?

In Robot Repair, we'll lay out a 4 x 4 grid of 16 cards. There are four different robot types: a yellow robot, a red robot, a blue robot, and a green robot. To make things interesting, we're going...